Aspects of the disclosure relate to determining motion direction.
Increasingly, computing devices, such as smart phones, tablet computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other devices, are capable of receiving location-based services (LBS). Location-based services are a general class of computer program-level services used to include specific controls for location and time data as control features in computer programs. As such, LBS provide information and have a number of uses in social networking today as, for example, an entertainment service accessible with mobile devices via mobile networks. LBS typically use geographical positional information of the mobile device to deliver content.
As an example of LBS, augmented reality (AR) ads may be placed at moving paths (e.g., an escalator, elevator, or moving sidewalk) within view of a camera on a mobile device. For example, AR ads may be placed along an escalator at a shopping mall, along a moving sidewalk at an airport, etc. Other examples may include handheld navigation on a mobile device directing a user at a moving path (e.g., an escalator) to either go up or down, or for scene parsing for robot vision. These examples may assist the vision impaired. However, a challenge exists in determining the motion direction of the moving path for purposes of placing AR ads, which may depend on the direction, in the appropriate locations at the moving path.
Embodiments of the invention provide improved techniques to address these problems.